March 4, 2014

Vienna University of Technology researchers have created a two-dimensional “electron gas” in strontium titanate. In a thin layer formed by the gas just below the surface, electrons can move freely and occupy different quantum states.

The new material represents a potential future alternative to standard semiconductors. Strontium titanate or other metal oxides could also exhibit other novel phenomena, such as superconductivity, thermoelectricity (converting heat to electricity), or magnetic… read more

Neuroscientists monitor inhibitory neurons that link sense of smell with memory and cognition in mice, shaping perception from experiences

March 4, 2014

Odors have a way of connecting us with moments buried deep in our past. But researchers have long wondered how the process works in reverse: how do our memories shape the way sensory information is collected?

In work published in Nature Neuroscience,scientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) demonstrate for the first time a way to observe this process in awake animals.

Carbon-rich tunnel, microtunnel, and spheroidal features on meteorite suggest past water movement throughout a Martian meteorite

March 4, 2014

A team of scientists at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has found evidence of past water movement throughout a Martian meteorite, reviving debate in the scientific community over life on Mars.

The team reports that newly discovered structures and compositional features within the a 30-pound (13.7-kilogram) Yamato meteorite suggest biological processes might have been at work on Mars hundreds of millions of years… read more

March 3, 2014

FirstNet — a state-of-the-art communications network for paramedics, firemen and law enforcement at the federal, state and local level — will give cops on the streets unprecedented technological powers, and possibly hand over even more intimate data about our lives to the higher ends of the government and its intelligence agencies, Motherboard reports.

March 3, 2014

Future Day 2014, a third annual global event, combined Google hangouts and live events, bringing together people around the world to brainstorm ways to create a radically better future.

Future Day was organized by Humanity+, an international nonprofit membership organization that advocates the ethical use of technology to expand human capacities, and The Millennium Project — an independent non-profit global participatory futures… read more

March 3, 2014

“Moore’s Law and neural networks can collude to address a grand challenge: understanding the World Wide Web. Virtual machines can be made atomic, real-time, and ‘smart,’” says computer scientist B. Torrent, in “An Improvement of DHTs Using Beild,” published today in the Journal of Internet Analytics.

“To accomplish this purpose, we use read-write archetypes to validate that the little-known collaborative algorithm for the improvement of forward-error correction… read more

February 28, 2014

Japanese researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science and Shinshu University have developed a way to shrink capacitors — key components that store energy — further, which could accelerate the development of more compact, high-performance next-gen electronic devices. The study appears in the journal ACS Nano.

Takayoshi Sasaki and colleagues note that current technology has almost reached its limit in terms of materials and processing, which in turn… read more

February 28, 2014

A team of researchers at MIT, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and in Saudi Arabia succeeded in creating subnanoscale pores in a sheet of graphene, a development that could lead to ultrathin filters for improved desalination or water purification. Their findings are published in the journal Nano Letters.

The new work, led by graduate student Sean O’Hern and associate professor of mechanical engineering Rohit Karnik, is the first… read more

February 28, 2014

Yes. A space elevator appears possible and space elevator infrastructure could indeed be built via a major international effort, a study conducted by experts under the auspices of the International Academy of Astronautics has found, Space.com writer Leonard David reports.

Two technologies pacing the development of the space elevator are an ultra-strong space tether and other space elevator components, and lightweight solar cells, according to study lead… read more